No new Welsh stamp duty for homes under £180,000

NOBODY buying a home in Wales for less than £180,000 will have to pay the new Land Transaction Tax, the Welsh Government has announced.

The new tax will come into force in April and will replace stamp duty.

The Welsh Government says the new threshold is “£55,000 higher than the starting threshold for stamp duty land tax in England”. It expects the move will reduce the tax burden for around 24,000 Welsh homebuyers.

According to property website Zoopla, the average house price in Wales is £185,401 this month, a fall of 0.24% since September 2017.

Right now, the threshold for residential property starts at £125,000 but, as a result of the Chancellor’s Budget announcement last month, it rose for first-time buyers to £300,000.

Conservatives have warned that the new Welsh system represents a “big cut in support available for first-time buyers in this country” and are concerned it could fuel a “brain drain”, with talented people choosing to set up home in England.

The Welsh Government states that under its plans “around 80% of first-time buyers in Wales will pay no tax – the same proportion which will benefit from the Chancellor’s first-time buyer tax relief in England”.

It claims that the “average home-buyer in Wales will pay more than £500 less tax “under the new rules”.

Finance Secretary Mark Drakeford said: “Under the changes... around 65% of these house sales will not be liable for tax. More than half of buyers will benefit from a reduction in tax relative to stamp duty land tax.

“This is consistent with my aim to make tax fairer and contribute to a more equal Wales.”